Oneshot: Saren Nihlus
by Sol-Vikar
Summary: From a Tumblr Prompt: No clue if the three spots are already taken but how about Saren meeting Nihlus as his Protégé (you know me - smut is always welcome )


There was a distinctive pause in fire as the prospective inductees took cover to reload or find a better firing position. Saren looked up from an intel report at the odd silence. He was standing in an observation blister 100 meters above the indoor range on an articulating gantry that moved along the ceiling of the warehouse on steel tracks. The shooting escalated again as more holographic targets appeared. Saren snorted in annoyance that none of the potential candidates had advanced the line of skirmish during the lull and he looked back down at the report.

His attention jerked back out the window as a series of thuds echoed through the cavernous facility. Unless someone had completely lost their mind, grenades were only to be used when the they had come within 20 meters of the objective, a small bunker at the far end of the field. Checking a small holographic map set into a pedestal he noted that the grenades had infact detonated around the periphery of the bunker. The main line of troops was still 300 meters away.

Saren took up the controls of the blister and maneuvered himself over the bunker. There, far below behind a section of simulated wreckage was a lone Turian shooting into the backside of the simulated enemies. The computer hadn't registered his presence and was still focused on keeping the others occupied allowing for the lone wolf to pick the targets off at his leisure.

Another salvo of grenades detonated around the bunker. Saren watched intently as the lone turian lid smoothly over the barrier he was using for cover and ran headlong into the bunker. A klaxon sounded and the simulation ended. Saren sent a general broadcast for everyone to collect their gear and head to the debriefing room set into the side of the warehouse. He then sent a private message to the individual who had taken the bunker to meet him at the gantry docking platform.

Nihlus Kryik stood by the docking platform, nervously checking his gear over and over as a sense of dread welled up in him. His impatience had probably netted him fine view of the exit door and a condescending smile as the council headhunters told him to never come back, he thought angrily. Breaking the line and charging ahead alone was decidedly _not _how assaults were typically conducted.

Nihlus looked up as the whirring of motors sounded overhead. The observation bubble attached to a rail mounted on a wall and slid smoothly down to the platform. Nihlus had to make a conscious effort to breath as the blister settled and its narrow access hatch popped open. An elder looking gray and white turian stepped out and focused on him immediately. Nihlus, as casually as he could, removed his helmet and tucked it under his arm. The elder turian wore no recognizable uniform, instead opting for a decidedly dated blue/gray body wrap and well worn boots. Dating him further was a traditional head scarf, presumably in the colors of his colony as he had no discernable tattooed on his face.

"Sir, I would just like to apo-" Nihlus began to gush but was silenced by a single finger. The elder turian glanced down at his datapad and beckoned Nihlus to follow. Nihlus felt that the condescending "buh bye" was being escalated to a full blown ass chewing before being violently shoved through the exit. It was always the worst ass reamings that were prefaced with indifferent silence. Nihlus bowed his head and followed the gray turian to the debriefing room but was surprised when he passed its door and opened another a few feet beyond.

Nihlus had assumed it was a cleaning closet, but was surprised to see a whole suite of electronics and monitors. One wall was occupied with the backside of one of his instructors as he addressed the rest of the candidates the room next door. The sound was muted but you could tell it was the usual hot wash of things that occurred and what could be done better. Nihlus could tell by the bored looks on all the faces looking at the instructor.

"Have a seat" Came a gravelly voice.

Nihlus obediently took a seat at one of the consoles and spun around to face the mysterious turian. His dated taste in clothing aside the elder was one of the few to have the rare genetic trait that caused crests to grow differently than the rest of the species. His cheek plates were long and pale gray, almost silver, as was the rest of his plates. Nihlus thought back on humanities initial impression that those who had such a trait where the female of the species once hostilities had ceased.

"Why do you think you're here?" The elder said as he crossed his arms. The air of authority and experience around the turian was almost tangible. Nihlus realized he was dealing with someone of immense importance. If he only wore a damn uniform!

"I, uh, I broke protocol and pushed ahead of the front." It sounded like an excuse even when the words formed in his head Nihlus noted with a twinge of embarrassment. The elder merely nodded and jerked his head towards the display behind Nihlus.

"And they are there because they followed protocol. They were predictable, and ultimately predictable."

"Sir?"

"Thats not what the Spectres need. We don't do predictable, we don't get bound by red tape. We take the initiative and hold it."

Nihlus was flummoxed and scratched his neck in agitation.

"Sir, I thought this was a screening program for Blackwatch?"

A small grin crept across the elders face as he uncrossed his arms and approached Nihlus who stood, still halfway expecting a reprimand. Realization struck him as a Silver hand was extended.

"I'm Saren Arterius. Your instincts are to good to be wasted on such things. I'm pulling you from the program for Spectre training."

Twenty. Twenty Spirit forsaken kilometers through enemy patrols and then an infiltration of a tier one encryption system to bypass the security of the facility and slip inside where who knows what awaits. Nihlus sighed as he did one last gear check. Saren watched his disciple from the front half of the shuttle, his face a mask as always. Nihlus had to admit that the "old man" as he had secretly named him, had a certain allure about him. It wasn't just the odd crest structure or Spectre status that was the big draw. It was the determination in those haunting eyes. It was the way that almost every word he spoke had an irresistible force of nature to it. As if he could tell you the most absurd lies, but you would believe it because _he _believed it.

There was a lurch as the shuttle began braking and descending to the insertion point. _We'll here goes. Not even a week in and I'm being thrown to the wolves._

The shuttle door slid open smoothly exposing the darkened treetops of Taetrus below. The mission was "simple" remove a person of interest before they gained enough clout to start a real rebellion. Fod'er Tanus was the target though it was suspected his teenage son,Kihilix, was also present at the compound.

Nihlus approached the shuttle door and held on to the overhead handrail as the shuttle tipped and yawed, finally settling on a small patch of grass. Without so much as a glance back He leaped off the shuttle. He had no more than regained his balance before the shuttle streaked away. The wildlife, silenced by the alien screech of modern technology, began chirping and keening in earnest again.

The sound of rustling grass behind Nihlus startled him and he spun around to see Saren casually strolling up to him.

"I thought this was a lone operation, sir." Ghostly blue eyes smiled at him in the moonlight air.

"This is also a real operation. I think this warrants a little hands on supervision." Saren said smoothly as he pulled his rifle from his suits hardpoint.

_Well this changes everything._

"Does this mean our timeline could be sped up?" Nihlus was already figuring out how he could utilize the extra gun to speed things up.

"We stick to your plan as outlined during the mission brief. I'm here to supervise and help if need be."

Saren couldn't help but notice how pretty the young turians eyes were in the moonlight. The rest of him seemed to shape up as well. He sniffed, dismissing the thoughts as he gestured for the mentee to lead the way. There would be a time and place, but not during a mission. Saren knew he was probably going to slow the kid down. But this was an actual Spectre mission handed down by the council and needed to be handled carefully. Some of his fellow Spectres had scoffed at the notion of having someone so young go out on a live mission. _You fight how you train. _Saren thought to himself as they began threading their way into the woods.

_Check point five, just three more to go and we are there._ Nihlus finished clearing the small, partially collapsed bunker and motioned Saren inside. A flicker of movement and the elder turian was beside him, helping to shove the bunker door shut. A small ventilation shaft provided a weak beam of light as the only source of illumination in the concrete structure. Saren turned on his flashlight at it's lowest setting, its gauzy white shaft of light weakly bathing graffiti and alarming cracks in the walls. His light hovered over a dry spot on the floor and then searched around for another. When no other areas presented itself with a suitable spot to crash for the night he approached it and plopped down.

"I'll take first watch." Nihlus said dutifully as the older Spectre tried to get comfortable, using his helmet as a pillow. Nihlus noted with some amusement that he was getting frustrated and finally sat up and pointed at him.

"No point, only one entrance and it will make a hell of a racket if any one comes in. Come here and sit down." Nihlus nodded and slid up next to him, leaning his rifle against the wall as he did so. They shifted around until they were almost back to back, kitty cornered against the wall for additional support.

Nihlus couldn't help but find the elder turians scent pleasing, -despite the must accrued from low crawling and sweating their way to their safe haven for the night. Saren smiled into the darkness as he felt the younger turian's involuntary rumble of arousal through his armor.

Fod'er looked up defiantly at Nihlus as he rested on his knees, hands behind his head. Nihlus's gaze wavered for only a split second to see what Saren was doing off the the side. Saren's back was to them, accessing a terminal. An expended medigel injector lay on the concrete floor of the room they were in, it's contents drained by the elder turian. Nihlus could see a thin wisp of smoke curl from the bullet hole that had punched clean through the elder turian's shoulder.

"Look at you, herded to murder your own kind like some mindless xenma. _This _is why we seek independence from the Hierarchy."

Nihlus returned his attention to the separatists' faction leader. The Carnifex in his hand steadying at a point between the rebels' chin and throat. The intensity in his eyes was disconcerting to say the least. He was a true believer of the cause, _his _cause.

"Why is he still breathing?" The words had a disembodied quality to them as they echoed around the cavernous room. Saren glanced over his shoulder only so far so as to show Nihlus an annoyed twitch of his mandible. Saren turned away from the look of confusion clouding the younger turians bright green eyes.

_You've got a lot to learn kid. _

"We're to extract him?"

The annoyance flashed into anger as Saren closed out of the readout that was showing him the progress of a data trawl and memory wipe program he had loaded into the compounds mainframe.

Before Nihlus could even register what was happening he was looking at the ruined stump of Fod'ers head lazily fall over as gouts of dark blue arterial blood pumped out of what remained of his head.

The shock in Nihlus' face morphed into anger as he spun and faced Saren. Saren calmly holstered his pistol and silently regarded the Spectre prospect for a while.

"That option went away the moment you alerted that gunship to our presence and we had to take it down. I don't know if you have the memory of a Louza, but I got shot as a result of that. Oh, and chances are it was a polonium round. I'm probably going to lose it."

A pang of guilt swept over Nihlus as he couldn't help but glance at the useless limb hanging limply at Saren's side. Blood had oozed from the wound and dried on his gray armor, leaving black streaks all the way down to hif fingers.

Saren turned back to the console and removed his data chip. Unbeknownst to both of them Kihilix silently backed away from the ventilation grate he was using to watch the whole thing go down, his mandible trembled with rage at how casually the barefaced turian had executed his father.

The extraction was an interesting affair. With their presence known to the Seperatists exfiltration to a landing zone for pick up was out of the question. Saren felt a weight lift off his shoulders as he saw the shuttle break cloud cover and dive for the roof of the compounds headquarters building. Almost immediately the forest around the compound started emitting long lazy streams of amber dashes as the chatter of small arms fire filled the air. Saren could see rebels streaming back into the compound as the shuttle flared it's thrusters and settled in front of them.

The narcotic side effects of the medigel reduced the soul wrenching pain in his arm to a dull throb as his vision took on a fuzzy tinge. The temporary treatment was now fully in his system, dulling his senses. Saren looked down in detached surprise as the concrete deck he was standing on began disintegrating little by little. Finger sized gouges seemed to spurt from it's smooth surface, kicking up dust.

_Thats gunfire, it means they are shooting at you!_

He numbly looked up at a observation tower. Bright orange stars flashed along it's parapets as the rebels began concentrating fire on the shuttle. He turned away from them and was confronted by bright green eyes as concern etched Nihlus's face.

_Careful, you could get lost in those eyes._

Saren accepted an outstretched hand and was pulled unceremoniously into the shuttle, his arm painfully banging into the interior bulkhead of the shuttle. Saren found himself tumbling into unconsciousness as he was cradled by Nihlus. The last thing he remembered was a cool hand gently caressing his brow as he left the pain behind.

Saren grumbled in annoyance as he dug in his sheets for the pager. After making it back to the frigate that had inserted them into Taetrus they had made a beeline to the Citadel to get treatment for Sarens wounds. He was right in his suspicions that the rounds were irradiated but the doctors were cautiously optimistic that he arm could be saved.

Saren looked over at the tubes that seemed to erupt from his flesh, piping nutrients and filtering out dead cells and tissue. His arm began to ache again so he depressed the only button on the pager after he found it in the mass of white sheets he was swaddled in.

Nihlus poked his head around a corner cautiously, the last time the elder turian had hit the button he had been greeted with a fusillade of epitaphs and an expertly thrown beverage packet to the head. Saren _hated_ the idea of being bedridden, even more so he hated the fact that someone was in his apartment more or less uninvited. His anger at what was a stupid mistake had cooled to a faint ember of resentment in the pit of his stomach.

"Sir?" Nihlus entreated from the protection of the doorway.

"You had better not be going through my stuff." Saren grumbled.

"Of course not sir, just doing some reading."

"Come here, I need more pain meds."

Nihlus smoothly slid into the small bedroom and went to a cabinet set into the wall next to the bed. He wore a faded pair of gray academy sweat tops and bottoms, the waistband was stretched out and hung loosely on his hips exposing his navel.

Nihlus removed an injector and set it to the lowest dosage.

"Same spot?"

Saren nodded and watched Nihlus as he carefully placed the injector on his bicep and released it's contents with a quiet hiss and nary a flinch. Nihlus replaced the injector and turned to leave but was stopped by a firm grip on his wrist. Nihlus looked down at the wounded Spectre to see the expression on his face soften.

"Stay awhile."

Saren released him only to briefly fear that Nihlus had had enough of his antics and was leaving anyway. Nihlus returned a short time later with a stool taken from his kitchen and sat at his bedside, hands folded neatly under his chin as he rested his elbows on his knees. Saren returned to gazing at the plain white ceiling of his bedroom. The only sound that could be heard was the muffled din of aircar traffic outside the bedroom window.

"I just want you to know that had things gone differently we would have extracted the idiot."

Saren's head lulled over to Nihlus, who's bright green eyes seemed to be examining something unseen within the depths of the bed sheets.

"Is this what it's like? To be a Spectre?"

A gray hand tenderly reached out and pulled Nihlus' from under his chin. Nihlus sighed at the feeling of warmth as he relented and leaned closer.

"It's not always so black and white. There are some hard choices that have to be made, but it must always be in the best interests of the galaxy at large. If this is to much of a burden for you I'll understand if you wish to return to your unit. But something tells me you want this. That you need this responsibility."

Nihlus regarded him for a long while in silence, he began absently running his thumb along the backside of Sarens hand as he thought.

"No, you're right. I guess what most upset me was that I had not arrived at the same conclusion as you did faster. I'm stuck on the Hierarchy's way of doing things. I want to continue. But next time I want to do it alone, I have a feeling I'd do better."

Nihlus was shocked when he saw Saren do something he had not seen the old man do since they had met. He smiled. Not the usual leer of condescension that he usually gave, but a genuine smile. Nihlus looked down and realized he still held the turians hand in his, but now Saren was massaging his hand as well.

"So I guess this means I'll be sticking around?" Nihlus smiled as a familiar scent hit him.

"For the time being." Saren coughed, trying to hide his want.

"You know, just because I prefer to work alone, it doesn't mean I want to be alone…"

Saren's grip hardened and pulled Nihlus closer, surprising him initially. Soon he was kneeling on the bed beside him, his face mere inches from Saren's. He sniffed at him tentatively, and sighed when Nihlus's scent hit him as well.

"I don't think I'm in any condition to be jumping around just now." Saren said in embarrassment as he gestured to his bandaged arm.

"Just shut up and let me handle this. -Sir" Nihlus smiled, a mischievous glint in his eye.

Nihlus could feel the apprehension in the tension of the old mans stomach as his hand slid slowly to his navel. Nihlus could feel the heat from the Spectres plates well before he even gently teased the top of his sheath. A long ragged sigh escaped Saren as he emerged into Nihlus' waiting hand.

Nihlus sidled up next to him and nuzzled the spectres cheek before kissing his way slowly down his neck, his hand seemingly having a mind of it's own as he gently stroked him. Nihlus could feel his gaze boring a hole through the top of his head so he looked up defiantly before tearing the sheets away. The intense gaze faltered as his grip tightened and stroked his entire length. Nihlus smiled as his eyes fluttered and he moaned involuntarily.

_You may command attention when in uniform, but this will be my domain. _Nihlus thought as he kissed down to Sarens sheath. His tongue played around his base while he stroked him, hand slick from Sarens fluids. He had to suppress a chuckle as he felt the Spectre shudder, it was almost too easy.

Saren had just enough time to open his eyes and look down at Nihlus just before he rose and took him in his mouth, settling at his base in one smooth movement. It proved to be almost overwhelming and he felt himself begin to slip. He grunted in concentration and took a few deep breaths. Then Nihlus began _moving. _

Saren was back on the defensive again as his hips bucked in want at every withdrawal and shied away with every soul stealing thrust down his length. Nihlus reached up and interlaced his free hand in Sarens as his motions became more vigorous. The pull became a blackhole of bliss as he emerged from Nihlus's mouth, his mandibles fluttering in pleasure just before savagely diving to the base of Sarens full length. He would pause at his base and tighten around him, only to repeat the motion until, with a great heave, Saren couldn't control himself any longer and moaned with release.

Nihlus felt Saren tense and settled at his base, greedily sucking at his seed with every spasm as he pressed his nose into his sheath.

When the sound of blood roaring in his ears finally died down Saren looked down to see Nihlus still wrapped around him, seemingly frozen with his eyes closed as he breathed deeply through his nose. Saren winced as his entire lower body began to feel like it was on pins and needles, his over stimulated member most of all. His eyes widened as Nihlus began to withdraw, tongue flicking at his member as he moved. Each flick an explosion of pleasure and pain as the old Spectre fought to keep from moaning again. Finally, blissfully, he was released. The air of the room chilling his now exposed member as it twitched weakly.

Nihlus moved back to Sarens side and rest his head on his shoulder, lightly running his clawed hand down Sarens stomach and smiling as he saw the muscles twitch.

"I will only say this once."

The tone in Sarens voice caused Nihlus to look up at him in concern.

"This must never cross into our duties. I know coming from the hierarchy thats a given. But I say this for my sake as well as yours. Lets keep each other honest in this respect."

There was a genuine look of uncertainty in the Spectres eyes which made Nihlus' heart skip a beat. This would be a very fine line to tread indeed.

"I understand Sir."

"Stop calling me that, just Saren is fine." Nihlus smiled as the elder turian pulled him in and kissed him tenderly on the cheek.


End file.
